The Turks, who were gradually overthrowing the empire of the Arabs in the east, were becoming formidable to the Christians also towards the end of the fourteenth century. Since the time of Brochard, who had written expressly to show how the east lay open to an attack from the Christians, several attempts had been made to raise a new crusade. La Brocquière, like Maundeville, was a knight, and he held the high position of counsellor and first esquire carver to the duke of Burgundy. As was the case with so many others of his own class, his pilgrimage to Jerusalem was the result of a vow, but the curiosity and ardour of the man-at-arms were perhaps more powerful in him than the mere calls of religion. He left Burgundy in the February of 1432, in company with other great lords of that country, passed through Italy by way of Rome to Venice, and there embarked and proceeded by sea to Jaffa. But when this holy pilgrimage was completed, as far as lay in his power to perform it, he undertook a pilgrimage of another kind, and in order to observe the manners and condition of the Turks, who were already threatening Constantinople, he formed the bold scheme of returning to France overland, which would lead him to traverse the western part of Asia and eastern Europe. The notices he has given us of the countries through which he passed, some of them but imperfectly known even at present, combined with the interesting period at which the journey was made, give an especial importance to this narrative, which is marked by the accuracy and good sense of its writer, and exhibits none of the credulity of previous travellers. On his return to the court of Burgundy, La Brocquière's appearance excited great interest, and duke Philip began to talk loudly of his intention to lead a crusade against the Infidels. It was probably to further his object that La Brocquière compiled his narrative, which was published in French, soon after the year 1438, to which date he alludes in his text. The state of Europe, however, was not now favourable to a crusade, and the duke's designs never went further than a few empty proclamations, and some equally fruitless feasting and pageantry. The Turks were allowed to pursue their conquests, and the victorious Mohammed II. became master of Constantinople in the May of 1453.
Our notices of the medieval travellers would properly conclude here. A new era was opening upon the west as well as upon the east, and the last breath of the spirit of the crusades died, as the system which had nourished it sunk before the great religious Reformation of the sixteenth century. Instead of monks and soldiers, Europe, more enlightened, began soon afterwards to send merchants, and consuls, and ambassadors. A clearer and more satisfactory light was now thrown on the geography of the Holy Land. The English traveller in Palestine of most authority in the seventeenth century was Sandys, who, however, often erred on the side of credulity. Before the end of the century came the well known Henry Maundrell, who, on account of the brevity of his narrative and the extreme accuracy of his descriptions, has been selected to conclude the present volume. We know little more of Maundrell than that he was a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, which he left to take the appointment of chaplain to the English factory at Aleppo. It is not within our province to notice the works of subsequent travellers.
It will be necessary to make some statement to our readers of the manner in which the present volume has been edited, and of the sources from which the different works it contains have been derived.
The travels of bishop Arculf, (as compiled by Adamnan,) as well as those of Bernard the Wise, and the life of Willibald, were printed in the Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti, Sæc. III., Part II., in 1672. A previous edition of Arculf had been published in a small quarto volume, Ingoldstadt, 1619, which also contained the abridgment by Bede. The latter, under the title of Libellus de Locis Sanctis, is included in the different editions of Bede's works, and will be found in the recent edition by Dr. Giles, accompanied with an English translation. Another edition of the narrative of Bernard was published from a manuscript in the Cottonian Library in the British Museum by M. Francisque Michel, in the Memoirs of the Society of Geography at Paris. M. Michel's text is in many respects inferior to that of Mabillon, but it contains the concluding paragraphs relating to the state of society in Egypt, Italy, and France, which were wanting in the manuscript from which Mabillon printed. But the new editor, M. Michel, has fallen into a very grave error; for the treatise of Bede, De Locis Sanctis, following in the Cottonian manuscript the tract of Bernard, he has mistaken them for one continued treatise, and printed them as such, accusing Mabillon of having printed only one half of his author. The narrative of Sæwulf, the only manuscript of which is preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, was published in the collection of the French Geographical Society by M. D'Avezac, from a transcript furnished by the editor of the present volume. M. D'Avezac has executed his task of editing with remarkable care and discrimination, but I fear that the transcript was in two or three instances inaccurate, and at the time of publication it was unfortunately not in the power of M. D'Avezac to have it collated with the original. One omission of some importance for the architectural history of the church of the Holy Sepulchre was very kindly pointed out to me by Professor Willis, and has been corrected in the translation. In describing this church, the text as printed by M. D'Avezac contains the words, "Ista oratoria sanctissima continentur in atrio Dominici sepulchri ad orientalem plagam. In lateribus autem ipsius ecclesiæ suæ capellæ sibi adhærent præclarissimæ hinc inde, sicut ipsi participes Dominicæ passionis sibi in lateribus constiterunt hinc inde." In the original manuscript the passage stands thus, and is rendered intelligible—"Ista oratoria sanctissima continentur in atrio Dominici sepulchri ad orientalem plagam. In lateribus vero ipsius ecclesiæ duæ capellæ sibi adhærent præclarissimæ hinc inde, Sanctæ Mariæ scilicet Sanctique Johannis in honore, sicut ipsi participes Dominicæ passionis sibi in lateribus constiterunt hinc inde."
These four narratives are here translated for the first time. In translating Bernard, the text of Mabillon has been compared with that of Michel. The narrative of Arculf has been somewhat abridged, and relieved of some miracles and theological observations that are totally without interest. It may be right to observe, also, that in the original manuscript this narrative is accompanied with plans of churches, copies of which are given in the edition of Mabillon, and in the editions of Bede's abridgement.
The translation of the Saga of Sigurd the Crusader, is taken, by the obliging permission of Mr. Laing, from his recently published "Hemskringla," or "Chronicle of the Kings of Norway."
A number of editions, and several translations, of the travels of Benjamin of Tudela, have appeared, but the only strictly correct one is that published by Mr. A. Asher, Berlin, 1840. The translation published in the present volume is a mere revision of the English version by Mr. Asher, altered a little in the language, to make it more suitable for the popular English reader. My notes are chiefly abridged from the valuable volume of notes published by Mr. Asher in 1841.
The only edition of the English text of the book of Sir John Maundeville which correctly represents an original manuscript, is that published from the Cottonian Library in 1725, of which a reprint appeared in 1839, with an introduction, and some additional notes by Mr. Halliwell. The language of this edition has been modernized for the present volume. The travels of Bertrandon de la Brocquière are preserved in a manuscript preserved in the Royal Library in Paris, from which they were published, with some abridgment and in modernized French, in the fifth volume of the Mémoires of the Institute of France, by Legrand d'Aussy. They were thence translated into English by Mr. Johns, and printed at his private press at Hafod, in 1807. This translation, which has become a rare book, has been here slightly revised, and a few illustrative notes have been added. Maundrell's journey is reprinted from the original edition.
Brompton, Aug. 28, 1848.